The invention relates to an arrangement in an anesthesia vaporizer comprising a liquid container including a vapor generator; a filling device; and conduits for supplying anesthetic from a transport and storage container to the liquid container and/or for removing anesthetic from the liquid container, and for conveying an amount of replenishment gas corresponding to the amount of anesthetic liquid from the liquid container to the transport and storage container upon filling the container and/or reversely upon emptying.
Anesthesia devices are used e.g. during operations in operating theaters in hospitals. The most essential components of an anesthesia device are a vaporizer and a dosing device for anesthetic. These components may be integrated or separate, as in cassette-type structures. The main components of a vaporizer are a liquid container including a vapor generator, and a filling device. The filling device serves to supply and remove anesthetic from the liquid container. Anesthetic liquids are stored in transport and storage containers, or flasks, each anesthetic liquid having a dedicated profile-coded flask opening. A flask can be connected only to a filling device suitable for each particular anesthetic either directly or through a profile-coded adapter.
Unlike other anesthetics, a currently used anesthetic liquid boils in room temperature, whereby the pressure inside the flask rises as the temperature rises. This anesthetic liquid is desflurane. This is one of the reasons why the opening of a desflurane anesthetic flask is provided with a profile-coded valve part. When the flask opening is inserted into the counterpart of the filling device, a tight filling conduit is provided between the flask and the valve of the filling device, and on inserting the flask opening deeper, the valves of the flask and the filling device are opened, the structure of the filling device determining the opening order, the number of valves, filling motions etc. If, owing to an increase in the temperature, the pressure in the flask containing desflurane anesthetic rises to a high level, this can result in an overfilled liquid container. In the worst case, anesthetic may flow from an overfilled liquid container to the dosing device, causing e.g. malfunction in the entire anesthesia device.